TromaDance Film Festival founder and Troma Entertainment president Lloyd Kaufman (right) with the Toxic Avenger at the 13th annual TromaDance Film Festival, May 5, 2012 at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park.

Written by

Alex Biese
| @ABieseAPP

Fourteen years ago, the TromaDance Film Festival was launched as a populist poke in the eye of Robert Redford's cinematic sacred cow, the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

"(Sundance) was, we felt, hypocritical, in that it really wasn't an independent movie festival, it was not really encouraging independent art," said TromaDance founder and Troma Entertainment president Lloyd Kaufman. "But TromaDance has evolved into a serious festival which more and more of the media takes seriously now, and the proof is the movies we've got."